good evening, everyone. we begin keeping them honest on the campaign trail where a 5-year-old newsletter is tonight raising new charges of flip-flopping by republican presidential candidate newt gingrich. since entering the race back in may, gingrich has become one of the harshest contradicts of the health care reforms his poept mitt romney signed into law five years ago as governor of massachusetts. take a look. >> your plan essentially is one more big-government, bureaucratic, high-cost system which candidly could not have been done by any other state

because no other state had a medicate program as lavish as yours, and no other state got as much money under the bush administration for this experiment. so there's a lot of big government behind romney care. not as much as obama care but a heck of a lot more than your campaign has admitted. >> he also likes to hammer the centerpiece of the massachusetts law which is the individual mandate that requires all residents above a certain income level to buy health insurance or pay a fine. now, the idea is controversial, but not so long ago many conservatives including gingrich supported the idea. here's what he wrote in april of 2006 in a newsletter. this was just after massachusetts enacted its health care law. quote, the most exciting development of the past few weeks is what has been happening up in massachusetts. the health bill that governor romney signed into law this month has tremendous potential to effect major change in the american health system. he went on to say, we agree entirely with governor romney and massachusetts legislators

that our goal should be 100% insurance coverage for all americans. what's more, gingrich applauded the individual mandate into law. quote, we also believe strongly that personal responsibility is vital to creating a 21st century intelligent health system. individuals who can afford to purchase health insurance and simply choose not to place an unnecessary burden on a system that is on the verge of collapse. these free-riders undermine the entire health system by placing the onus responsibility on taxpayers. now gingrich did include some caveats about the massachusetts law and suggested some tweaks to the nuts and bolts. but still, he gave its basic principles a glowing thumbs up. this wasn't a new position for him either. here's what he said on "meet the press" back in 1993. >> i am for people -- individuals exactly like automobile insurance, individuals having health insurance and being required to have health insurance. and i am prepared to vote for a voucher system which will give individuals on a sliding scale a

government subsidy so to ensure that everyone as individuals have health insurance. >> that was in 1993. here he is in 2008 still supporting in the bluntest of language individual mandates. >> we ought to require everybody to either have insurance or to post a bond. but the fastest growing section of the uninsured is people over $75,000 income who are making a calculated gamble that if they get sick, you'll take care of them. and i think that's just immoral. >> immoral, he said. now, the gingrich newsletter that surfaced from 2006 is giving his opponents new ammunition with the iowa caucuses just a few weeks away. a gingrich spokesperson said, this is old news that has been covered already. newt previously supported a mandate for health insurance and changed his mind after seeing its effects. the real question is why mitt the massachusetts moderate won't admit that health insurance mandates won't work. keeping them honest as recently as may just after entering the republican race, gingrich was

still backing the idea of an individual mandate. here's what he said on "meet the press." >> well, i agree that all of us have a responsibility to help pay for health care. and i think that there are ways to do it that make most libertarians relatively happy. i've said consistently we ought to have some requirement to either have health insurance or you post a bond or in some way you indicate you're going to be held accountable. >> but that is an individual mandate, is it not? >> the issue wasn't on his radar yet. but gingrich was singing from a different tune, scrambling from the idea he talked about. >> actually, newt, we got the idea of an individual mandate from you. >> that's not true. >> yeah, we got it from you, and you got it from the heritage foundation. >> that is not true. you did not get that from me. you got it from the heritage foundation. >> and you've never supported it? >> i agree. you said this to the audience isn't true. have you supported in the past an individual mandate? >> i absolutely did with the her

tan foundation against hillary care. >> you did support it? >> yes, sir. >> that's where we got it, from you and the her tan foundation. >> okay, a little broader. >> how does gingrich support doing a 180? a spokesman said gingrich changed his mind. earlier this month on "the situation room," gingrich call it had a mistake. >> in retrospect we were wrong. once you go to a mandate, you have turned so much power over to the government that the politicians rather than the doctors end up defining health care bp and so it was a mistake. >> well, we invited gingrich to be on the program tonight. he declined, said he didn't have time. in iowa tonight, this is certainly crunch time for the republican president cal contia contenders. wolf blitzer is there. he joins me now. so gingrich spent today playing a bit of defense on this, didn't he, wolf? >> reporter: he did. he realizes that there seems to be a contradiction. he acknowledges it. he says his position has changed. and when i pointed out to him

that even this year he seemed to be expressing some support for health care mandate, if you will, he offered this exchange with me. listen to this. i think it was in may you seemed to still at that time be supporting some form of mandates. >> well, notice the phrase here. i think it would be great to find a way to get every american covered. i think that would be better for the country. can you do that without a mandate? and part of what john goodman does is he creates a pool so if you don't want to buy insurance, you're not compelled to. your share of the tax break would go into a charity pool. if something happens to you, the charity pool takes care of you. and there are ways to do it that you don't infringe on constitutional freedom. >> reporter: still, anderson, there's no doubt that this is a very, very sensitive issue for newt gingrich right now because he sees his position over the years going back, and you point out, into the early '90s when he was opposed to hillary clinton's health care plan. and at the time he supported mandates just as the

conservative heritage foundation did at that time. there's no doubt his position has changed over these years, most recently. so it's a sensitive subject, especially out here on the campaign trail in iowa where president obama's health care law is not very popular with these conservative republican caucusgoers. >> not what he wants to be spending the day talking about so close to the caucuses. he also had interesting comments today in your interview about another one of his republican rivals. i want to show our viewers what he had to say. take a look. >> you look at ron paul's total record of systemic avoidance of reality, and you look at his newsletters, and then you look at his ads. his ads are about as accurate as his newsletters. >> now, if he were to get the republican nomination -- >> he won't. >> let's say he were. would you vote for him? >> no. i think ron paul's views are totally outside the mainstream of virtually every decent american. >> pretty tough stuff, saying he

wouldn't under any circumstances vote for ron paul if he did in fact get the nomination. is gingrich still saying that he is running a positive campaign, taking the high road? is he saying that these are just understandable responses to attacks by ron paul in this case? >> reporter: he was very tough on ron paul today. i was surprised as tough as he was. i think he's the first republican candidate to flatly say he would not be able to vote for ron paul if ron paul were to get the republican nomination. ron paul is doing very well here in iowa. he might win the iowa caucus a week from today. so i was surprised by that. he'll say he's just reporting the facts. he's just learning more about ron paul. and he's not going negative. he's just being honest about it, that he's being above board. but he's getting tougher. he's being hammered. if you're here in iowa even for a day or two, you see the commercials on television, the negative attacks on gingrich never stopped from these other campaigns. and now he's beginning to feel it, and he's responding. he was pretty tough on mitt

rochlny today as well, although not by any means as tough as he was on ron paul. >> yeah, just one week left till the caucuses. appreciate it. great interview today. let's bring in our panel, political contributor and democratic strategist hilary rosen and former gingrich spokesman, rich galen. rich, how big an issue are these memos where gingrich complimented romney's health care plan back in massachusetts? >> i think they're much bigger than the court filings on his divorce and that kind of business because it's very difficult for a candidate on the road, one of his opponents to talk about that. this is right in everybody's wheelhouse on the end of the pond, the conservative end of the pond, that newt is swimming in along with perry and bachmann and santorum and to some extent paul. i expect they will hammer him. foreget about the ads. they'll take this to every pizza place in iowa. >> let me just push back on that. what's wrong with him saying, you know what? i thought maybe it was a good idea. we saw how it actually got

implemented. and i don't believe in it anymore. i change my mind. i mean, isn't that kind of refreshing as opposed to kind of doing what a lot of candidates seem to do, which is say that it's not actually changing their mind and sort of go through laborious explanations why it's not? >> it would be refreshing if it weren't also being carried by -- or parried by his campaign doing the equivalent of nanny nanny boo-boo by calling mitt romney names. that's just childish. but on the one hand, his campaign is trying to hammer romney for saying essentially what you just said, that he tried it and he found it didn't work. and on the other side saying, well, because of newt gingrich, when i change my mind, you know, it's because i'm smart and i figured it out. >> hillary, do you agree it's a big deal for nutd gingrich? >> well, i think it is a big deal for gingrich, for some of the reasons that rich said but also because he is trying to convince people that mitt romney

is not trustworthy. and every time he tries to do that, something else comes out where he himself has switched his position to the point where you really never know what's going to come out of his mouth. and you cannot be sort of the slow, steady conservative alternative to mitt romney if you have all of the same faults that mitt romney has, only you just have them from a more conservative perspective. and so, you know, i think gingrich's only shot here is to really wound romney in a fundamental way. but the more that this stuff comes out about him, the tougher it is. i just have -- it is so important that people understand that what's happening in this republican primary is that these guys are freaking out about the fact that oh, my god, we might get caught actually wanting to help americans have health insurance! that's -- you know, hello? most people actually want health

insurance. how dare they go out acting like this is the worst thing that could ever possibly happen. and i think that when it comes to a general election, president obama, it doesn't matter if it's gingrich or romney, he's going to wipe the floor with them because actually people want health care. >> but as you know -- >> i want to watch that floor wiping when we get there. but let me just say quickly, anderson, i just turned 65 so i'm on medicare so i'm out of this conversation. >> you are. you're protected. >> but it's not just, as you know, you know, hillary, it's not just -- they're not saying, look, people shouldn't have health insurance or health care. it's a question of what the government role in it should be. >> well, it is. and newt gingrich stepped right in it because he used to -- you know, the republican conservative line is that these are all free marketeers. he unveiled today the real reason that it's important to have more universal coverage because he actually called them free riders, people who aren't

willing to pay into a system for health care or aren't willing to live with some mandates. they're free riders because as we all know, the system ends up paying for everybody, and those who don't participate, you know, get the biggest benefit. >> rich, i want to ask you, just before our show tonight, moments before our show tonight, rick perry, he's always said he's pro-life except in cases of rape, incest or health of the mother. but he just told an iowa crowd this evening, he now opposes abortion in all of those cases as well. >> he didn't say life of the mother. he said the first two. >> in the first two. what do you make of that? >> well, you know, romney -- or i'm sorry, perry is -- it was rick perry, right? yeah. you know, he's been running ads proclaiming himself to be the purest of the evangelical conservatives in the race. and maybe he is. and this is just another step along that way. the conservative side of the equation in iowa is being split and split and split.

and i think romney may be making a little headway. i think santorum's making a lot of headway. i don't think bachmann's going to do much. every time somebody decides they want to go to a perry or a santorum, that comes right out of newt's hide, and i think that's one of the reasons we're seeing this drop. perry is not going to be the nominee either. so the fact that, you know, this is probably playing better in texas than it is in southeast iowa. >> but this is rick perry's last stand. >> how does gingrich have to do in iowa, hillary? >> well, he has to do well. he doesn't have to win, but he has to at least come in, i think, second to stay in this. but, you know, we're going to go into new hampshire in a week after iowa and then south carolina a week later. florida a week after that. gingrich is doing very well in south kor south carolina and florida right now. primaries send to have a momentum factor.

and people have a lot of expectations for gingrich essentially as the viable anti-romney candidate. if ron paul ends up winning iowa, i frankly think that iowa gets dismissed and it all just moves to the next three caucuses. to really determine it. >> we'll be there again in four years, it's just what we do. it reminds me very much of the thompson campaign four years ago, hillary. which i was a member. where we came in third just barely beating out john mccain. it wasn't quite bad enough to drop out then which i think might have made life easier. we skipped new hampshire and we wanted right to south carolina. we didn't do as well there as we wanted. that was the end of it for us. and i suspect that's the route that gingrich might take as well. >> gingrich is raising a lot of money right now. and he has money. obviously, mitt romney has money. i think coming out of iowa, anderson, the real question is, you know, what happens to rick perry? what happens to rick santorum? those are candidates who might have still some extra support,

still some extra resources and a base to deliver to either gingrich or romney. >> hilary rosen -- >> iowa doesn't pick out winners, but it does identify losers. >> rich galen, appreciate it. we said the iowa caucus is one week from today. our coverage on that night begins at 7:00 p.m. eastern, tuesday night, january 3rd, on cnn. let us know what you think. add us to your circles, follow me on twitter. i'll be tweeting tonight. just ahead, you may know that tens of thousands of americans were sterilized against their will or without their consent right here in the united states in the 20th century. it's certainly a shameful chapter in our history, but tonight, we look into something you may not know. the refusal by states to compensate those victims. our elizabeth cohen interviews victims of this unimaginable horror. >> so the state of north carolina has said they're sorry. is that enough? >> no. >> more on his story tonight. also ahead, a deadly blaze that left experienced firefighters shaken. they could not save three little

girls or their grandparents from the flames. the latest on the investigation and what caused that fire. let's check in also with aisha. >> thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets again today in the volatile syrian city of homs. eyewitnesses said security forces fired into the crowd. opposition groups said more than three dozen people were killed across the country. this despite the arrival of arab league monitors. that and much more when "360" continues. [ dad ] i love this new soup. it's his two favorite things in one... burgers and soup. did you hear him honey? burgers and soup. love you. they're cute. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

tonight a report on a really disturbing chapter in our history, one that's a lot more recent than you might think. did you know that at one point in the united states, more than half the states had four sterilization laws. we're talking about eugenic, a word that is typically associated with nazi germany. but a large eugenics movement in america before and after world war ii. sterilization continued in some states into the 1970s. tens of thousands of americans who were deemed unfit to reproduce were operated on against their will or without their consent. some of those victims are still alive today and many want justice. so far all they've gotten is a handful of official apologies. one state, north carolina, promised to compensate the victims. but we find they're still waiting. elizabeth cohen has more.

>> at the time i couldn't do nothing about it. >> reporter: october 22nd, 1968. charles holt was 19 at the time, living in an institution for boys in buttner, north carolina, when his life was drastically changed. without his consent. >> they sent me to the hospital and they put me in a room and she gave me gas and i just went off to sleep. then when i woke up finally, i noticed something was wrong. and they told me what they done. and i waeptd wasn't a happy camper. >> reporter: what they had done was surgery, a vasectomy to make him sterile. but why? it turns out the order came from the state, which said he was feeble minded and unworthy of

having children. >> i wanted to be just like any other young man, to try to have a family, have some kids that i could call my own. it's sad that it happened that way. >> reporter: charles holt wasn't alone. in fact, his story is only one representing a shameful chapter in american history. from 1907 through the 1970s more than 60,000 americans were sterilized because they had, quote, unfit human traits. it was called eugenics. the goal -- breed out those considered to be a burden on the rest of society and make, quote, better human beings tomorrow. 33 states had eugenics programs at one time or another supported by some of the nation's most respected doctors and social workers. even the supreme court approved

it. oliver wendell holmes wrote in one 1927 case, three generations of imbeciles are enough. in north carolina, anyone, a parent, teacher, neighbor, could ask the state eugenics board to have someone sterilized. some victims were developmentally disabled living in institutions. records show others were living at home, forced to go under the surgeon's knife because they were paupers or because they were blind or deaf or had syphilis. >> to be sterilized if you were sexually promiscuous. >> or if you were paralyzed or not physically attractive. they have a skin disorder, this person is not fit to reproduce. >> reporter: the state of north carolina has tasked charmaine fuller cooper to uncover this frightening past. >> the first time last year that i actually had to read an actual eugenics board record of an individual patient case file, i literally sat at my desk and cried for 15 minutes. >> reporter: her research shows 7600 people in north carolina

were sterilized. procedures here continued into the 1970s, well after many states had stopped. so it's estimated that 2,000 victims are still alive. in later years the focus targeted women on well favor, many of whom were african-american. north carolina is the only state to take steps to compensate victims. for nearly ten years the state legislature has written reports, submitted bills, even heard testimony from victims. >> i wouldn't have minded having a daughter, maybe two, maybe three. the state needs to award us because we got to carry on. >> reporter: so far these victims have received nothing more than apologies from governor bev perdue. >> i just came here as a woman, a mama and a grandmama and as a governor to tell you it was wrong. >> reporter: compensating victims could cost tens of millions in a time of budget cuts. state legislatures like

representative ruth samuelsson are worried about money. >> we had to set priorities, things like do we compensate eugenics victims or put teachers in place. we had to make choices. >> reporter: is it possible that these victims will in the end walk away with nothing? >> that is a possibility if we don't have legislators who are willing to stand up for the victims. >> reporter: charles holt knows he may never see a dime. so the state of north carolina has said they're sorry. is that enough? >> no. >> reporter: what more do they need to do? >> i think they should give us some compensation off of it. >> reporter: 2012 could be the year the legislature acts. charles holt holds out hope for an award he says will fit the crime done to him more than four decades ago. what's just horrible is they did this to person after person after person. >> yes, ma'am. it's just disgusting. >> reporter: elizabeth cohen, cnn, linwood, north carolina. >> that's hard to believe

americans were forcibly sterilized within the last 40 years. joining me to discuss it is paul lombardo, author of "three generations, no imbeciles." "yew generalic "eugenices." also areva martin is a disability rights attorney and children's advocate. paul, it's stunning that this happened and in some places, i mean, anyone could suggest someone else should be sterilized. >> north carolina was unusual in this sense. most states required people to be in institutions, to be civilly committed before they could be operated on. but north carolina was wide open. a social worker, a doctor, the sheriff, the truancy officer or a teacher, anyone could make this recommendation to the eugenics board. >> and it could be just because someone was promiscuous? >> certainly sexual misbehavior was high on the list of things that people were sterilized for, not only in north carolina but other states as well. >> what's the likelihood that anyone will actually get compensated? how do you even put a dollar

figure on something like this? >> you know, anderson, when i hear this story, it makes my blood boil. to hear the legislators saying we're sorry, as if that's enough. that's just half the role here. we're talking about a matter of distributive justice. this is a matter of justice plain and simple. the state took an aggressive step. intentional acts of violating these people. your most inalienable right, your right to be a parent, to reproduce, was taken away from these individuals simply because some board determined that they weren't fit, they weren't, you know, capable of producing the kind of children that the state deemed, you know, desirable. so i hope that the legislature in this case steps up and compensates, makes whole these individuals who have suffered such an atrocity. >> areva, who was disproportionately targeted? i'm guessing african-americans and women. >> african-american and women. there was this whole gender

thing happening, thought that women in particular were incapable of making good decisions about their reproductive rights or that they were more promiscuous than men. sew women were targeted. and as we heard in the piece, african-americans disproportionately impacted in a negative way by this state action. and that's what's so galling about this. this isn't private individuals. this is every branch of government, state legislature, the executive branch and the judicial branch determining that certain individuals in those without a voice in our society were not, you know, were not worthy of having children. >> paul, this was happening in 33 states including puerto rico. north carolina, are they the only ones even talking about compensation? >> as you showed in your graphic, there were more than 30 states that actually had these laws, but only 7 of them have actually recommended an apology, taken a position at all. there are still 20-some-odd states that haven't even gone that far. so the idea that the states will face this with compensation

skips over the fact that many of them haven't even admitted that it happened. >> there's also, i guess, paul, some who kind of view this as a left/right argument. to you, do you see it in those terms? >> i don't see it that way either today or historically. historically there were people from all different branches of not only government but all parts of the political spectrum that supported eugenics. every president from teddy roosevelt to herbert hoover and those in the middle like woodrow wilson, democrats, republicans and independents supported some kind of eugenics in the first third of the century. today we've got almost everyone condemning it, but i see very few people coming forward and saying it's time to address this with some kind of compensation. >> is there any accurate number of how many people are still alive who were directly affected by this? in the piece elizabeth was reporting some 2,000 may be alive in north carolina. >> that number is startling enough for north carolina, anderson.

but also what we do know is that reparations occurred with respect to japanese interment camps. you know, reagan and then president bush provided resources, $20,000 for individuals in those interment camps. i would say that's the floor for these individuals. because that was displacement, loss of property. we're talking about violation of people's bodies. being forced into surgery. being coerced. being told that if you don't sign for this surgery, you're going to be placed in an orphanage or in the case of parents on welfare, that they were going to lose their benefits if they did not submit to this surgery. so the numbers are staggering. there's a case, anderson in alberta, canada, where a woman sued the government for wrongful sterilization and actually recovered over $700,000. and that caused that government to step up and make available close to $140 million to individuals, over 1,000, who had been sterilized by a similar government program. so there's a little hope out

there that north carolina and other states -- and i recognize what paul is saying that some states haven't even said they're sorry. but i think north carolina has an opportunity to do something unique, and that's to say that these individuals matter, that you know, even though they were voiceless in society, that they are human beings and they matter. >> it's again just stunning. we'll continue to follow it. areva martin and paul lombardo as well. thank you. >> thank you. arab league monitors arrive in the heart of syria's uprising. but are they going to make any difference? tens of thousands of protesters flood the streets of homs to greet them. we'll show you how syrian forces responded. and the deadly christmas fire in stamford, connecticut. what fire inspectors are now saying about the likely cause and why it spread just so fast. [ carrie ] i remember my very first year as a teacher,

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and isha is here with a 360 news bulletin. how are you doing? >> good. good to have you back. >> nice to have you back. >> the arrival of monitors from the arab league is not stopping the government's assault on protesters. opposition groups say 39 people were killed today. tens of thousands of syrians flooded the streets of homs, the city at the heart of this nine-month uprising. witnesses report security forces fired bullets and tear gas. mixed signals coming from the obama administration to allow yemen's president to come to new york for medical treatment. a white house official says it

has been granted but the state department says no final decision has been made. president obama plans to ask congress this week to raise the debt ceiling by more than $1 trillion to cover most of next year. the government is said to come within 100 billion of the current ceiling next week. a drop in holiday sales at sears and kmart mean some locations will be closing their doors for good. the company that owns both chains says it will close more than 100 stores. a string of fights caused chaos at the mall of america in minnesota. shoppers posted video of the brawls on youtube. at one point police reported ten separate fights. witnesses say -- wait for it -- that the violence began after rumors spread that rappers lil wayne and drake were visiting the mall. police arrested nine people. i give up on people. >> you give up on people? >> i do. completely. >> don't give up on people. >> i won't give up on you. i'll check back with you in a couple minutes.

serious stuff tonight. word tonight of a possible cause in that tragic home fire in connecticut that killed three young girls and their grandparents on christmas morning. we've got the latest on what caused that fire. new information on a different christmas tragedy, this one in texas. police are releasing the identities of the victims and gunman in an apparent murder/suicide. [ kimberly ] when i was 19, i found myself alone

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other new details tonight about the tragic christmas morning fire in stamford, connecticut, wiped out five members of one family. three young sisters and their

two grandparents. the city's fire chief says the cause appears to be accidental, was likely the result of someone in the house improperly discarding embers from the fireplace. the three-story house was undergoing renovations. it is unclear whether working smoke detectors had been installed yet. dozens of firefighters tried to put out the flames. the loss of life was too much for even the most senior member of the department. >> after 37 1/2 years, 38 years on the job, you're never prepared for anything like this. it's heartbreaking. i had to recall 70 firefighters today for debriefing and most of them broke down. >> deb feyerick has more. >> reporter: as fire raced through the victorian home just before dawn christmas morning, neighbors frantically called 911. >> stamford, 911.

what's the address of the emergency? >> there's a huge fire right next to us. the whole house is on fire. >> what is the address, ma'am? >> we're at 2241 shippan avenue. it's the house next door. a major fire and there's three kids and a woman. >> reporter: trapped inside the stamford, connecticut, home, grandparents and their three granddaughters 10-year-old lily and 7-year-old twins, grace and sarah. >> i was calling about a major, major fire with people in the house. >> we have the fire department on the way, ma'am. >> please, come quickly. >> reporter: the house was under renovation. it appears fireplace embers placed in an outdoor trash enclosure near the home ignited the blaze. mom, madonna badger, managed to climb out on to scaffolding, frantically directing firefighters to the third floor where she said her children were sleeping. >> the crew pushed through two rooms unable to find the children. they were pushed back by the intense heat and flames. >> reporter: grabbing two of the frightened girls, family friend michael borcina, seen here on his facebook page, reached the

second floor. >> the heat drove them to get separated. it looks like one went back upstairs and another one was found with the grandmother. >> reporter: grandfather lomer johnson had spent christmas eve playing santa at manhattan's saks fifth avenue. he managed to lead one of the granddaughters to the back of the house, and climb on to the roof, then died before he could pull her to safety. >> just inside the window that he came out of, we found one of the young children. i guess there were a pile of books. it looks like she was placed on the books. >> reporter: the mother, a successful marketing executive, is said to be in shock. she was taken from the scene sobbing, my whole life is in that house. >> when you don't make that rescue that you failed, and i don't think anybody wants to fail. >> this was such a horrific story. it affects a lot of people that heard it. the house had to be torn down immediately it was so unstable.

after the fire. did the fact that it was a construction site have anything to do with it? >> reporter: that's what investigators are looking into. right now no apparent smoke detectors, no fire alarm system. they're looking to see what role the construction may have played. but it was really placing the embers where they were placed and the wind picked up and it hit the house. you have to keep in mind from the time the mom went to bed at 3:30, an hour before the house was consumed. ironically, it may have been the scaffolding that actually saved her life, and she was able to climb out on that. >> someone moved embers or they got blown? >> reporter: they had a yuletide fire. they were wrapping presents the night before christmas. it seems when they emptied it out, put it in a bin thinking it was safer outside the house when in fact it wasn't. >> reporter: they had taken the embers out to a bin. >> correct. they thought it was safer. yeah. >> fireplaces are so tricky like that. the grandfather he was actually able to get out but couldn't bring the little girl out? >> reporter: this is what's so tragic. there was so much chaos in that

house. you have to remember, they were running through fire. they were in their pajamas. this fire was so intense it was pushing the firefighters out. they tried the third floor, the second floor, but the heat was so intense. he was able to get out of a window, thinking he was stepping on to a roof, but instead whether it was weakened by the flames, he stepped through the rafters. the child who was expecting him to reach into the home to pull her out, he simply -- it appears right now that he perished the moment he sort of stepped through the rafters. but they were found at the window on opposite sides. >> that's just so horrible. deb feyerick, appreciate the report. we're learning more about the christmas day massacre in texas and the gunman dressed as santa behind an apparent murder/suicide. the wife died and the entire family. what killed heavy d? doctors uncover the cause of the hip-hop legend's death when we return. dad, why are you getting that? is there a prize in there?

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will be giving away passafree copies kinda. of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. a "360 bulletin." a 19-year-old california man faces one count of attempted murder in a shooting that paralyzed a u.s. army soldier during a party to welcome him home. rubin turned himself in yesterday. police have identified the victims of that brutal christmas day shooting in the dallas suburb. he dressed as santa claus, allegedly killing his estranged wife, their two children before turning the gun on himself. the couple was separated.

court records show he had filed for bankruptcy and was still living in the family's foreclosed home. the los angeles coroner's office says heavy d died of a blood clot in his lung caused by deep leg vein thrombosis. he also suffered from heart disease. heavy d died on november 8th after collapsing at his beverly hills home. and if you saw a "people" cover of "twilight's" taylor lautner "out and proud," blame twitter and bad photo shopping. the magazine says it's a fake. and a colorado real estate businessman who gave the best christmas gift ever to a complete stranger. earlier this month, mitch found $10,000 in two sealed envelopes at the las vegas airport while waiting for his flight. he could have pocketed the cash, but instead he tracked down the rightful owner, an el paso man who dropped the money while running to catch a flight.

he got the money back in time for christmas. as for mitch, he said he wanted to show his kids the right thing to do, and he'd also want someone to do the same for him. and a programming note, we are just a few days away from 2012. i'll be in times square ringing in the new year with anderson and kathy griffin. the party starts at 11:00 p.m. eastern on saturday night, new year's eve. it is right here on cnn. and trust me, you do not want to miss it. up next, anderson will have tonight's installment in our top ten "redidiculist"ridiculist." tonight, number four who happens to be our number one favorite couple right here on "360." romance haters, don't hate courtney and doug because they're in love. them. how'd you do it? eating right, whole grain. [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios... five whole grains, 110 calories.

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we've been counting down the top ten "ridiculist" of the year. tonight at number four, it's our favorite couple. back in july, doug hutchinson and courtney made the "ridiculist" for the second time. i don't know how many times it's been already, but take a look. we told you about them before. you remember doug is a 51-year-old character actor, perhaps you've seen him in "the green mile" or "lost" or "the x files." i have no memory of him. and his bride is 16-year-old courtny. you might have seen her relaxing on the beach wearing the american flag perhaps or perhaps singing in a boat with a dog that matches her bikini. ♪ when i go shopping ♪ i be popping ♪ when i'm a walking

♪ they be dropping >> yeah, she's 16. kids today. so yes, there is a 35-year age difference. and no, courtney hasn't graduated from high school yet. and yes, many have criticized their union. but the happy couple were on "good morning america" today explaining their relationship, but effectively putting all skepticism to rest. it is a classic love story, really. 51-year-old boy meets 16-year-old girl online, thus setting into motion a four-month online courtship. sure, it sounds like the beginning of every episode of "to catch a predator," but this one was different. it was beautiful and unique. >> there's a really beautiful and unique way to get to know someone because we didn't have the distraction of the physical. >> mm-hmm, the physicality. >> mm-hmm, the physicality. i know what you're thinking. where were this girl's parents, right? they were all for it. doug being an upstanding guy made sure of that. here's what he told courtney's

parents. >> if you are uncomfortable with it, i will respect you, and courtney will respect you. and we will step back. >> mm-hmm. did you see that? no, courtney did not get grounded, and her father who's four years younger than doug did not file a restraining order. instead the parents gave their blessing. her dad even walked her down the aisle. let's hear it for the cool parents. luckily she didn't have to miss any tests or anything when she jetted off to vegas to marry doug. vegas? romantic. because as it turns out, courtney is home schooled via an online christian academy. see? she's a very religious girl. >> i was a virgin when i married him. >> she was saving herself. >> if i kept that, i would really be blessed with a beautiful gift, and god did. he blessed me with my soul pate. >> and in the presence of god and with her virginity that she managed to hold on for 16 whole years, courtney married her 51-year-old soul mate. courtney's talked about morality

before. perhaps on her youtube channel. >> i have never done pornography. i am a christian girl. i hold my faith very tightly. and i'm a virgin. and i plan to stay that way until i am married. >> and now she's married. she was married five months after she posted that video. way to make a plan and stick to it. i bet she learned that in 4h. sure, some people are calling her husband a crable robber, pervert, dirty old man. those are just words. we know the truth. >> people are welcome to their opinions. that's what the world is about. if they need to feel this way, that's theirs to hold. not ours. >> did you see that? can we roll that again, and can someone please explain to me what is going on with courtney in this clip. >> people are welcome to their opinions. that's what the world is about. if they need to feel this way,

that's theirs to hold. >> are we frozen on this video? i know we're transfixed. what was she doing with her face? i almost thing she just got roofied or made had a side effect from botox. if i didn't already know better from courtney herself. >> my breasts are real. everything about me is real. my hair is real. my teeth are real. my eyelashes are real. my breasts are totally real. >> it's all real. did she mention her breasts -- i think she mentioned her breasts twice. it's as real as the reality show that courtney and doug are considering. geez. or to put it another way, real head to toe. >> it's real head to toe. >> courtney's plastic surgeon was god. >>